Paper Trail
by V. Shalyr
Summary: An appreciation for normality, albeit their somewhat skewed form of normality, was apparently still something that had to be learned. KaiShin, Oneshot


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

**Summary**: An appreciation for normality, albeit their somewhat skewed form of normality, was apparently still something that had to be learned.

**Pairing(s): **Kaito x Shinichi

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><p><strong>Paper Trail<strong>

**By V. Shalyr**

It all started with a single folder with a few very unusual pieces of paper in it. Shinichi had found it on the kitchen table after the surprise birthday party his friends had thrown for him had ended and everyone had finally, finally gone home. Actually, they hadn't meant it to be a surprise party. According to Kaito, he'd told him about it several weeks ago. Shinichi had simply, true to custom, forgotten about it. Oh well, it wasn't like they weren't all used to that by now.

"Kaito?" Shinichi asked slowly, leafing through the contents of the folder with growing curiosity. "Did you make this?"

Finishing up the cup of hot chocolate he'd been making for himself, his boyfriend sauntered over and grinned when he saw the folder in his hands. "Yes, I did. It's your birthday present."

"What… is it exactly?" Shinichi asked cautiously. He knew what it looked like, but appearances could be deceiving especially where the eccentric ex-thief was concerned. It was just one of the qualities that made him interesting to live with, but also a bit dangerous.

"Isn't that obvious? It's a case."

"I can see that. But what's it doing here?" And why was Kaito calling it a birthday present? Crimes hardly seemed like appropriate gift material, especially for a detective. Even if Kaito had been a thief, he'd know that Shinichi would disapprove.

"It's not a real case," Kaito explained as though he thought it should be obvious. "I made it up."

Well, that explained a few things, but it didn't exactly answer the most important question.

"…Why?"

Kaito grinned and Shinichi felt a shiver run down his spine at the familiar, sharp edges hidden just behind KID's shark's smile. "Because I miss writing riddles and you said you were bored. It's been awhile since I've had a chance to create a good mystery. Might as well put past experiences to good use, no? I'll create the mysteries and you can solve them. It'll be just like old times."

That wasn't exactly how Shinichi would have put it. Sure, that very first "case" had borne quite a few similarities to an old KID heist. It had a riddle to start off with and then a detailed scenario for when the treasure in question was stolen. Kaito had even gone out of his way to create more than a dozen profiles for the characters who appeared in said scenario, policemen and suspects alike. Kaito had been extremely thorough, just as he was with everything else he did, and it felt bizarrely real.

But that was where the similarities stopped, especially when the cases Kaito wrote for him in his free time started to branch out from being just about thieves.

.

One of them being a famous detective and the other an increasingly popular professional magician, their schedules tended to be more than a little hectic. One or the other was almost always out late or up early. Not that it usually bothered them. Kaito was good about making sure they had time to themselves once in awhile and forcing their uncooperative schedules to fit around his impromptu vacations.

Lately, however, Kaito's efforts hadn't really been necessary, at least on Shinichi's part. Maybe the fact that he pretty much always caught the murderer was finally starting to sink in. Maybe the couple of up and coming genius detectives had finally exhausted the criminal population. Or maybe he'd simply worked too many cases and was finally starting to get tired of it all. For whatever reason, it seemed as though since the beginning of the New Year, crimes that required his attention had greatly decreased and he found himself returning home at about the same time most other people did. It had felt downright surreal.

That must have been about when he'd first complained to Kaito about being bored. At first it had seemed like the magician had just been vastly amused by his plight, but then his birthday had come along and there had been that "case". Now, most of these lazy late afternoons found the detective either in the library or on their bed perusing the latest stack of files Kaito had arranged for him. He wasn't bored anymore, but… Well… He was starting to be increasingly—_disturbed_—by it all.

Shinichi didn't move from his spot on top of the covers when he heard the front door close. It had taken him forever to convince Kaito to please, please use the front door like a normal person. Night had already fallen and the moon beyond the window seemed almost unnaturally bright, reminding him of other times when he hadn't yet met Kaito and had still been chasing KID, only to have the magician thief decide one day to turn around and pursue him instead. Said magician appeared in the doorway of their bedroom soon after his thoughts had strayed, stifling a yawn.

Leaving his coat on the back of a chair, Kaito flopped down on the bed on top of Shinichi, resting his chin on his shoulder to peer at what he was reading. Shinichi grunted at the sudden extra weight but otherwise didn't respond. The magician frowned and turned his head to nip sharply at his detective's ear.

Shinichi yelped and jerked his head away, turning as much as he could to glare at the person sprawled across his back. "Hey, what was that for?"

Kaito pouted. "I didn't write that so you could ignore me you know. I don't take well to being ignored. It's bad for your health."

"Like I didn't know that already," Shinichi muttered, rubbing at his poor ear. Though the pain couldn't distract him for very long from the question that had been circling inside his head since first becoming engrossed in Kaito's latest case file. This one was several times thicker than the first few, and someone had been killed in it. "Kaito, how did you come up with this?"

The magician looked rather bemused by the question. "That? I read through your father's old research material and the records you have of your past cases. You're right. Most criminals just don't have any creativity at all. It was easy to come up with a more intriguing scenario."

"Oh." Shinichi really wasn't sure what else to say to that. What else could he say? Criminals like Kaitou KID didn't just come along everyday. Both of them had been geniuses in their own right, and Shinichi knew better than anyone how good Kaito was at what he did. He really shouldn't have been surprised that his talents as an internationally wanted thief could translate into _this_. After all, confounding the police and driving law enforcement crazy was just something he did. But still… Could anyone blame him for starting to be a bit perturbed?

His fellow detectives certainly didn't think so.

"Oi, Kudou, what's up?"

Shinichi looked up when Hattori Heiji dropped into the seat across the picnic table. The weather was uncannily good that day so he'd decided to take his new reading material to the park. Maybe the change of scenery would put everything in a different light. This particular case had so many components to it that Kaito had taken the time to bind it into a book.

"Nothing much. I was just looking over this." Shinichi gestured with the book in his hands. "Kaito gave it to me this morning."

"Kuroba, huh? Can I have a look?"

The Detective of the East considered the request for a moment then shrugged and handed the book over. "Suit yourself."

Hattori lifted an eyebrow at the cover then riffled through a few of the pages. Slowly, the grin on his face faded to be replaced by an uneasy frown. "Er, Kuroba wrote this?"

Shinichi nodded, contemplating the contents of his coffee mug. He'd have to go back to the coffee shop on the corner to get a refill.

"…Did I ever tell you to remind me not to get on your crazy boyfriend's bad side?"

"Many times."

"Well, I'll just tell you again now. Sheesh, he just gets freakier by the day." Hattori didn't seem to notice Shinichi's glare at that comment and went on, "Seriously, I still wonder sometimes how the hell you two ended up together."

"He was persistent," Shinichi grumbled, not particularly wanting to recount the details. What Kaito wanted, Kaito got. It was practically a law of nature. Being courted by him felt more like being relentlessly stalked despite his impeccable manners and overwhelming charm, though to his credit, Shinichi had held out for an entire two months before caving and agreeing to go out with him. And truthfully, the whole ordeal had given rise to many good memories too, some very embarrassing memories granted but good nonetheless, especially with Kaito being the romantic that he was.

Handing the book back to him, Hattori shook his head. "I don't know. I'm not sure it's such a good idea for him to be writing these is all I'm saying."

And really, two more cups of coffee later, Shinichi had to admit that he agreed with him.

Hakuba Saguru's reaction was even more extreme, possibly because his long years of dealing with KID had heightened his wariness of the thief to near paranoia. The afternoon he dropped by to deliver a cake Aoko had baked found him standing in the living room of the Kudou manor holding the case book up by one corner like he was afraid it might sprout fangs and bite him.

"And you are encouraging this?" he'd asked Shinichi, his voice strained with incredulous disapproval.

Frankly, Shinichi wasn't in the habit of consulting his fellow detectives on anything where Kaito was concerned. After all, what kind of advice could they possibly give? But on this particular matter, he had to concede at last that perhaps they had a valid point.

.

Shinichi set the book down in front of Kaito and frowned. "Kaito, you're really starting to scare me."

Kaito looked up from his Saturday morning newspapers and raised his eyebrows. "Whatever do you mean?"

The detective sat down in the kitchen chair across from him, the troubled expression not leaving his face. "This."

He waved the book about and Kaito tilted his head to catch the title. It was the last fictional case he'd put together for his dear detective, and one he'd been quite proud of. "Yeah? So what's the problem?"

Shinichi took a deep breath then let it out in a rush, putting the book back down and folding his arms on the tabletop. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the story. Quite the opposite in fact. He'd never seen such a complicated and well thought-out murder mystery. Even with the clues Kaito made sure to leave behind in the text and the riddles his fictional criminals couldn't seem to help but write, it had taken him an entire week to solve it. And that was exactly the problem. He'd even cracked out his notebooks and started making actual diagrams and profiles and other necessary files for himself. It was… Well, it was scary.

"It feels like you're turning into a criminal mastermind just by sitting around and thinking about it."

Kaito blinked. "But I already was a criminal mastermind."

"You were a master thief," Shinichi pointed out. "It's not exactly the same thing."

The magician rolled his eyes, finally folding up the newspaper and setting it aside. "You're not afraid I'm actually going to go out and start killing people, are you? Because that's ridiculous, and I'd be inclined to feel offended."

"I know, I know." And Shinichi did know. After all, despite his mischief and antics, the former thief had a better heart than pretty much anyone he knew. But all the same, "It's just creepy is all."

Kaito considered this, studying the distressed look on his detective's face. Shinichi just remained quiet and let him scrutinize him. The magician was good at reading people and Shinichi wasn't all that good with words so it worked out better that way in the end.

"I can stop writing them, you know. I only started because you said you were bored."

"And I'm grateful about that," Shinichi assured him, relieved. "They were fun to solve. But I think I would prefer it if you stopped. I'd really rather be bored."

Not that he was likely to be bored or frustrated with the common criminals he tended to come across _now_, not anymore. Nope, he was perfectly happy with that, knowing that his lover wasn't running around coming up with ways to commit "interesting" crimes. He really should have just accepted the recent lull in smart criminals for what it was—a blessing and a rare chance for a break.

Maybe he should drop by to see the Shounan Tantei more often. It had been awhile since the last time he'd hung out with them. Or he could find a soccer team to play with and see if he could hunt up some new novels to read. Really, now that he was bending his mind to it, there were so many other things he could do with his free time.

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><p><strong>END <strong>

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><p><strong>AN<strong>: Just something amusing that crossed my mind. It turned out somewhat longer than I was expecting. Happy Valentine's everyone.

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